Democratic Innovations and the Quality of Democracy: The Case of Poland

Democracy can be evaluated from a number of perspectives depending on the conception of democracy and the normative ideas democracy is intended to encapsulate. In practice, improving democracy is a vital issue in the context of the growing evidence of public disillusionment with democratic institutions and the disconnection between citizens and decision makers (see della Porta 2013; Smith 2011). This paper uses a procedural evaluation of democracy and examines four dimensions: representation, participation, competition and accountability. Representation has come to be adopted as an essential element of a modern democracy (Dahl 1989). Participation is vital for government ‘by the people’ (Pateman 1970; Diamond&Morlino 2005). Competition provides for the democratic selection of elites (Schumpeter 1943[2000]; Dahl 1971). Finally, accountability ensures that political elites are responsible for their actions (Przeworski et al. 1999; Diamond&Morlino 2005). The analytical framework based on four dimensions is used for the examination of the Polish case from 1989 until 2011. The quality of democracy has improved over time in Poland. More than two decades since the fall of communism, there is more representation, more stable competition and more effective accountability. However, the most notable democratic deficit in Poland is in the dimension of participation (see Gwiazda 2015). This paper shows the importance of democratic innovations. Innovations, defined as specially designed institutions, can significantly improve the quality of democracy. In Poland, women’s representation in parliament has improved with the introduction of party and legislative quotas whereas accountability has became more effective with the introduction of investigative committees. In the area of participation, however, very little has been done. Thus this paper will also examine if participatory and deliberative innovations introduced recently at the local level in Poland can be adopted at the national level or whether top-down institutional reforms are needed instead.